The Way It Is
by Golden Moon Huntress
Summary: There's a farmer somewhere in Dorne who thinks Robert is still King and hasn't seen a winter frost yet.


**Author's Note**

I do not own Game of Thrones. All rights belong to the rightful creators and owners.

Inspired by this thread on reddit: www. reddit r/ asoiaf /comments /bkg 8ox/ spoilers _ main _ just_think _ for_all _ the_political /

Just a quick Oneshot that is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Show canon compliant, spoilers for all seasons.

* * *

Their land was a beautiful one, but so too was it a hard and unforgiving one. What it gave it took back twice, and yet those who lived there knew nothing else.

Tanni lost her first sibling when she was three, too young to truly understand, a baby unnamed her father said was stillborn. She lost her second at seven, her second brother Beren, who fell sick with fever. His health worsened steadily over three weeks until at last he took his last breath and was gone.

It was a way of life.

So too did the cattle beasts die, and another always replaced them, and so too did her mother have another child the year after to replace the one dead.

She lost her third at ten, her younger sister Ola, who slipped down a cliff and broke her little neck. They mourned her and buried her and life carried on with a new baby the year after.

In her twelfth year her mother died giving birth to a babe that lived no longer than three weeks, her strength finally all used up. Tanni cried for three days and three nights, but the cattle still needed tending to and her youngest siblings minding. She took care of the household while her father took care of the farm.

Eight months later he was gone too. A quick sickness, deadly, and he was no more, leaving the seven of them alone to care for themselves.

The days rolled by. Tanni and her eldest brother Yural, barely eleven months younger than her, tended the farm and manned the cattle along with seven year old Kosa, while Suki, the next eldest of her sisters, cared for the younger three and minded the house.

It was a hard life, a busy life, and cruel life, and all they knew was that the cattle grew to be butchered, the vegetables in the garden grew to be eaten, and the sun rose in the west.

For three years they lived as such, until came the day when Jian had worn too many holes in the boots of his size, Kosa had more skin showing than covered by her clothing, and their matches had all run out.

Tanni and Kosa were going to have to go to market.

* * *

They herded up the best of the sheep and cows, tethered them to Max and Fel, their little ponies, and rode out with Inna and Jap, two of the farm dogs, close at their heels.

After a hard day and a half's ride they were joined by a few others on the road, an older farmer with a cart full of grain, a boy perhaps Tanni's own age with a bull and a tall, thin man in a dark jacket and hat with a sword at his side.

Tanni spoke to the farmer, whose grain looked good and pure, and he sold them two sacks, which he even let them keep in his cart instead of weighing down the ponies with it.

"Twill be more 'spensive for you at market so it twill."

"Aye,"said the boy with the bull. "Everything's more expensive under Bran the Broken."

"Bran the Broken?" asked Kosa. "Who's that?"

"Who's that?" echoed the man in black, as though affronted. Tanni shot Kosa a look, warning her to keep her darned mouth shut.

"He's our King!"

"Oh," said Kosa.

"Where've you been living you don't know such things?"

"We kip usselves to usselves," Tanni snapped. The man shook his head scornfully.

"Is he one of King Baratheon's sons then?" she asked, trying to make good.

"Nah, they'd awl dead and gone. Not sure where thev dug this'un up from," said the farmer.

"I heard the Dragon Queen brung 'im w'her as'n advisor," said the boy with the bull.

"Aye, that'ud meek sinse."

"The dragons is all dead and gone," Kosa said sagely, the sanest comment Tanni had heard since this conversation began.

"It is known," she agreed.

The boy shook his head. "Naw they ain't! The Dragon Queen had three, and the Norfmen an Ironborn kilt two'o 'em, an then the third ate her awl up fur the deaf o'its brothers."

Kosa giggled. "That's the stupidest fing ave ever heard, an' Jian sas lotsa stupid fings."

"What'd you know little girl?"

"Lotsa fings better than you ah reckon!"

Tanni reached over and slapped her sister's ear. "Kosa! Mind yer mannas!"

Kosa rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut.

"Who is this Dragon Queen anyhows?" Tanni asked.

"Some foreign whore from Essos," grunted the farmer.

"She was the last of the Targaryens," said the man in black.

"But I thought the Targaryens was all dead," asked Tanni.

Kosa snorted. "They is now, 'parently."

"Viserys Targaryen and his sister Daenerys escaped to Essos, where he died but she succeeded in hatching three dragons. They were real. I saw two of them with my own eyes."

"How big was they?" asked Kosa.

"Bigger than many houses put together. Using them, Daenerys conquered part of Essos known as Slavers Bay, before setting her sights on Westeros. Now, Cersei Lannister was Queen by then-"

"So where does this Bran the Broken come in?" asked Tanni.

"I'm getting there-"

"And who's this Cersei Lannister? Didn't King Robert have sons? Geoff and, uh, Thomas?"

The man winced. "Joffrey and Tommen."

"Aye, thats'um."

"Joffrey became King after his father died from a hunting accident. He made an enemy of House Stark after executing Lord Eddard Stark, and died during his wedding celebrations to the good Queen Margaery."

"The good Queen Margaery?" Tanni ventured a little nervously. She was beginning to regret having started this. All the knots and new names were making her head spin.

"Daughter of Lord Tyrell."

"Oh, um, Mance?"

"Mace. She married one of King Robert's brothers first, but he died, and so she was engaged to King Joffrey-"

Kosa snorted. "Man, she had shit luck with husbands."

Tanni flicked her ear.

"-who died during their wedding feasts. She was then we'd to King Tommen, Joffrey's heir apparent, instead."

"So what happened to her? She must be this Bran's Queen-mother, right?"

"She was killed in an explosion at the Great Sept in Kings Landing."

"Oh."

"Her husband, Tommen, died of unknown causes soon after, and their mother, Cersei Lannister, took the throne. Now, due to the war in the North, Robb Stark had been named King there while Joffrey was alive, but he was betrayed and murdered."

Tanni was beginning to wonder if they needed those matches so desperately after all.

"Several years later, his bastard brother Jon was named King in his stead, after winning a great battle for it. However, he had been a member of the Nights Watch-"

"He was a deserter?" Tanni asked.

"He believed his oaths no longer bound him since he'd died and returned."

Tanni shook her head. "Ded is ded. There ain't no comin back from it."

"Jon Snow claimed he did. He also claimed there was a great evil bringing. Winter and the dead from beyond the wall."

"How can anyone bring the dead?"

"The creatures could bid corpses to do their bidding. King Jon reached out to Queen Daenerys, who wished to conquer Westeros, but agreed to help him battle the great threat. In the great battle of Winterfell the monsters were vanquished-"

"But what were the monsters?" asked Kosa.

"Men made of ice that could freeze you with a touch and control the dead."

"That's even stupider than real live dragons."

"But they were real, and they came with the winter storms."

"Ain't been no winter storms in a hundred and fifty years," Tanni said, repeating something their daddy had often told them.

"They came with the winter storms, and they battled for Winterfell where they were valiantly defeated by King Jon and Queen Daenerys, though one of her dragons was killed in the effort."

"Right."

"They then turned their forces to the South to take Kings Landing from Queen Cersei. During the siege another dragon was lost and Queen Daenerys burned much of Kings Landing, killing thousands."

"But... why?" asked Kosa.

The man in black shrugged. "Queen Cersei's body was never found and Queen Daenerys proclaimed herself ruler the following day. That was the last anyone saw of her. King Jon claimed her killed her to stop her killing more innocents such as those at Kings Landing."

"Huh."

"With no living claimants, the remaining Lords and Ladies made a vote and decided on Brandon Stark, King Jon's younger half brother, to be King. King Jon was then exiled for his crimes, while his half-sister Sansa is now Queen in the North."

Kosa eyed him. "Where did the random Starks suddenly come from?"

"That's how things went."

"But you can't just change your main characters halfway through! That's cheating!"

"That's just how things were."

"Well," Tanni muttered. "Ain't that something? But it don't put food in our mouths, or shoes on our feet."

* * *

They arrived at the market a day later, sold their cattle and bought the desired goods, as well as a new ram and cow. They stayed a night and set off back the following day along with the boy who had had the bull.

His name was Danel, Tanni learned, and his family farmed a day and a half's ride from them. He was a third son, not set to inherit much other than a few cattle.

Ten months later they were married, and the six of their children that lived grew old under the reign of Bran the Broken.


End file.
